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May 3 marked the World Press Freedom day in Accra, Ghana. Unlike many media rights groups that warn of a growing trend of journalists being targeted for their work, Leon Willems, director of Free Press Unlimited, says there are reasons to be optimistic. While Hungary and Poland assault press freedom, some countries – Turkey, China and Egypt – suppress and jail journalists, others – the Philippines, Russia, and Mexico – are deadly for journalists, despite the absence of a war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Attacks on journalists in the first five months this year bring the total number of deaths to 32, over a third more than last year, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Media rights organisations have been tracking the number of journalists killed, detained and missing since the 1990s. Their data also includes media workers, like interpreters and drivers, and distinguishes between those deliberately targeted while on a dangerous assignment, and those killed in crossfire.The author points out signs of “resilience” amid the gloom and names the contract killing of a Slovak investigative journalist and his fiancee in February, which sparked mass protests and forced prime minister, Robert Fico, to resign. Not mentioned is the murder of the Maltese blogger and anti-corruption activist, Daphne Caruana Galizia in a car bombing in October 2017. She had been digging for months into the island's hugely profitable “passports for sale” programme. It is no doubt good news that “fresh glimmers of hope are multiplying,” and that “around the world, journalists and their supporters are fighting back in encouraging ways,” calling for an end to internet censorship, and “using this connectivity to save lives” etc. The author’s organisation, Free Press Unimited (FPU), is said to support independent quality journalism worldwide and help local journalists and media organisations in war zones and conflict areas, repressive states or fragile democracies, to provide their audience with trustworthy news and information. However, the FPU has been accused of silencing its own journalists in December 2016, by revoking their access to Radio Tamazuj, which was founded and funded by FPU. The East African radio station had allegedly published items that criticised Internews, one of FPU’s donors. The Dutch news website, De Correspondent revealed the FPU’s philosophy, saying donations took precedence over journalistic integrity. “Try not to bite the hand of the person that is feeding you,” wrote Joop Daalmeijer, chair of the FPU board, to Radio Tamazuj’s editor in chief. In December 2014, a small radio station, Radio Dabanga, supported by FPU, reported that more than 200 women and girls had been raped in the village of Tabit in Darfur, after a commander from the Sudanese armed forces stormed the area. The reports, although unverified, caused an international outcry, making headlines across the world. The joint African Nations and UN mission to Darfur, Unamid, tried to investigate but was denied access to Tabit by government forces in November. Ten days after the claims were made, the mission reported that they had been allowed entry, but that no evidence of rape was found. Radio Dabanga later reported further inconsistencies between information it had gathered and Unamid’s report,The author says, “courageous men and women (and sometimes even children) around the world continue to brave the odds to bring us the news” every day. “We all benefit from their dedication, and we all have an obligation to honor their successes, not just their sacrifices.” Indeed, FPU would have to get its act together and respond to allegations about silencing its own journalists.

"While governments from China to Russia routinely block or filter access to the Internet"? And private corporations in the USA do likewise.

The result is the same but, given their druthers, 80% of the world's people trust their governments to do it rather than corporations.

This is borne out by the high media trust levels in the UK, Singapore and China.

The BBC retains the trust of most Brits. The Chinese overwhelmingly (85%) trust their government media. They know they have censors and they trust the censors' common sense and good judgement.

Here in the US we have lost trust in our 'free' media. We know it's censored but we don't know who censors it or why. We've experienced it lying to us too many times. Only 18% of us now trust it. The USA is destroying itself by allowing public information to be privately controlled.